The Sacrament of Marriage at The Church of the Precious Blood

We welcome you to be married at The Church of the Precious Blood. Here are a few things you should know as you prepare for your wedding day. While we hope these guidelines answer most of your questions about being married at The Church of the Precious Blood it is necessary to speak to the Pastor (732-222-4756) in order to establish the date of your wedding.

IMPORTANT: Do *not* contract with a venue for your wedding reception before clearing a day and time with us. You may wind up chosing a day that we cannot accomodate because there is already a scheduled wedding, or it's a Holy Day. 

We do celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage on Mondays through Saturday. However, on Saturday, we only have one time slot at 12:30 PM and 2:00 PM so that the clergy can be at a 4 PM Mass on Saturdays and so the clergy can be available for funerals earlier in the day. We do not celebrate Weddings on Sundays except in extreme situations (e.g., the couple run a restaurant and they will be working on that Friday and Saturday of that weekend.)

You can schedule your rehearsal time on the evening before your wedding or at anytime prior to the wedding. You can speak to the parish office to establish the time.

In order to marry in the Church you need to be free to marry in the Church. If you have been married before you’ll need to have an annulment of that marriage before we can set a date for your marriage.

You will need to get a recent copy of your Baptismal certificate. You can call the Church where you were baptized and they will send you a copy. If one of you is not Roman Catholic, you can get a baptismal certificate or a church membership certificate from your church. If one of you is not baptized we will secure a dispensation from the Diocese for you to be married in the Church.

You will need to have a Civil Marriage License for your marriage. You can get the license in any municipality in New Jersey. The License is good for 30 days but takes 72 hours to obtain. You will need to present a witness to the municipal clerk and proof of your identity. Its best to call your municipal clerk’s office to determine times that you can secure the license.  At the time of your ceremony your witnesses and the celebrant will sign the license and the parish will forward it to the clerk at the Borough of Monmouth Beach. You will be given a copy of the signed license as well as a Church certificate. After two weeks you are able to obtain an official copy of your license from the Borough of Monmouth Beach’s clerk.

In preparation for your wedding you will need to participate in a Pre-Cana Program. Pre-Cana programs are held throughout the Diocese. You can obtain a list of programs by visiting the web-site and registering on line. www.dioceseoftrenton.org/marriage-ministry/ You will be given a certificate of completion from the Pre-Cana team.

The Church of the Precious Blood does not charge a fee for you to be married in the Church. We are delighted to celebrate your Sacrament with you. You are, of course, welcome to make a donation to the Church in lieu of a set fee.

Our Church Music Director,Joseph Moffitt 1.805.284.1323 jmoffittmusic@gmail.com will help you plan the music for your celebration. We have a number of Cantors who can be engaged to lead your congregation in song for your wedding.

We do not allow anything "on the floor" outside of the sanctuary. This includes a runner, decorations on the floor of the aisle, the throwing or dropping of flower petals (whether real or artificial), or the throwing of rice.

You are free to arrange for any flowers or decorations for your ceremony. Any floral displays should be on the floor of the sanctuary or not elevated such that they block the view of the top of the altar. 

God created man and woman out of love and commanded them to imitate his love in their relations with each other. Man and woman were created for each other…Woman and man are equal in human dignity, and in marriage both are united in an unbreakable bond. (United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, Ch. 21, p. 279)

The sacrament of marriage is a visible sign of God’s love for the Church. When a man and a woman are married in the Church, they receive the grace needed for a lifelong bond of unity.

Marriage is a Covenant

The Sacrament of Marriage is a covenantal union in the image of the covenants between God and his people with Abraham and later with Moses at Mt. Sinai. This divine covenant can never be broken. In this way, marriage is a union that bonds spouses together during their entire lifetime.

The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life. (CCC 1661)

The love in a married relationship is exemplified in the total gift of one’s self to another. It’s this self-giving and self-sacrificing love that we see in our other model of marriage, the relationship between Christ and the Church.

Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love. (CCC 1662)

Marriage Reflects the Holy Trinity

We believe that God exists in eternal communion. Together, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united in one being with no beginning and no end. Human beings, likewise, were created by God in God’s image for the purpose of communion with another human being.

Christian marriage at its finest is a reflection of God’s self-giving love expressed between the love of two people.